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STUDIES IN JAIN LITERATURE
the sinner; for his karmas are very powerful. In Paüma-cariya, Närada who, according to the text, is a Jain sage challenges the authority of the so-called Vedas and criticises the performance of animal sacrifices in the name of Dharma. According to him the true nature of sacrifice enjoined by the Vedas is ethical :
"Body is the altar, mind is the fire blazing with the ghee of knowledge and burning the sacrificial sticks of impurities produced from the tree of karma; anger, pride, deceit, greed, attachment, aversion and delusion are the animals to be sacrificed, along with the senses. Truth, forgiveness, non-injury are the sacrificial gift to Brāhmanas; right faith, knowledge, conduct, celibacy, etc., are the gods to be pleased. This is the sacrifice prescribed in the real Vedas by the Jinas. If it is performed with proper concentration and meditation, it yields the fruit—the most cherished nirvāņa (moksa, liberation). Those who perform sacrifices enjoined by the pseudo—Vedas by killing animals—being greedy of blood, fat, and flesh-those wicked ones like cruel, merciless or hard-hearted hunters sink, after death, into hell and continue to wander in the endless saṁsāra—the cycle of birth and death.”
Regarding the ethical interpretation of sacrifice, there is no room or could be no room for dispute as the Vedic Hindus too give such ethical interpretations. Here the point to be noted is that the word Veda, which has its own dignity, aura, grandeur and authority, the Jains are ready to use with reference to their own Āgama !
In Vasudevahindi (The Adventures of Vasudeva) there is a fantastic story regarding the origin of Atharva Veda and the birth of the author of Atharvaveda with its black magic :
Pippalāda, so the story relates, is born of Sulasā, a nun and Yājñavālkya, an ascetic. The parents desert the child (later known as Pippalāda) as soon as it is born. The child grows up to be an illustrious Vedic scholar-Pippalāda. On knowing the peculiar circumstances of his own birth he decides to take revenge upon his parents and invents Atharva Veda with its black magic. He severs the tongue of his father with a knife and reminds him of his crime-desertion of one's own child. He cuts him to pieces and offers his limbs as oblations in the sacrificial fire. He metes out a similar punishment to his mother as well.
This outrageous story is beneath contempt. Pippalāda is an ancient revered sage. To account for the black magic the Jain author seems to have fabricated this offensive and abusive story.
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